PAULSBORO — The Collingswood High School boys basketball team came into Paulsboro Thursday night with some early energy, taking a 5-0 lead to start the first quarter.The Red Raiders put a quick end to that.Paulsboro used a 42-8 extended run into the second quarter to pull ahead by 29 midway through the period en route to an 88-44 win in Colonial Conference action.After falling behind by five, the Red Raiders forced 16 Collingswood turnovers to take a 42-13 advantage with 4:43 to play in the first half. From there on out Paulsboro head coach Sean Collins turned to his bench, using 14 players in the blowout.“We’ve been trying to get that energy for a while offensively,” Collins said. “They really shared the ball and looked for each other. Collingswood came in at 6-2 and just lost a tight one to Haddonfield, and that for sure had a lot to do with their energy (Thursday).“We just had to bring the energy and bring the juice.”The Paulsboro offense was fluid, getting up and down the court with ease against the Panthers and taking chances from beyond the arc, shooting 6-of-23 from 3-point range. The 26 percent average from downtown isn’t poor by high school standards, and the fact that the Red Raiders starters dominated on the glass — 29-16 — the risk was well worth the reward.“We shoot a lot of 3s,” Collins laughed. “Some games the coaches and fans want to kill me because they’re not falling. But we’re committed to shooting 3s, just like we’re committed to bringing the pressure. We always think if we stay the course, they’ll eventually start falling.”He wasn’t wrong.After missing their first four attempts from 3, the Red Raiders hit 5 of their next 12 from deep, putting a stranglehold on Collingswood by the time the third quarter had started. Senior Cassius Carter was responsible for most of the deep threat, nailing three 3s in a 14-point, six-rebound effort.The junior duo of Theo Holloway (18 points, 11 rebounds, four steals, three assists) and Saleem Little (14 points, five rebounds) combined for 18 of Paulsboro’s 28 in the first quarter, breaking the trend of the Red Raiders starting slow this season.“Most of the time it takes us a while, usually ’til the second half, to get started,” Holloway said. “We just played harder and went at it from the beginning. Most of the time with our offense, we got the green light. We all shoot, we’re all guards and we just crash the boards.”Senior point guard Keenan Williams didn’t need to do much more than control the offense, but still collected a solid stat sheet with seven points, six assists, five steals and three boards. Junior guard Brandon Hamilton provided almost all of the third-quarter offense for Paulsboro, scoring all of his 12 points in the 15-point period.The dominant performance is a regular occurrence for the Red Raiders so far this season, having won eight of their nine games by at least 12 points. The 44-point victory Thursday just shows what the team can do when they play four strong quarters.“We haven’t really been playing great lately,” Little said. “Struggling early, clicking late. We don’t do it intentionally and we just wanted to start the way we’ve been finishing lately.”

Contact Rob Edwards at 856-845-9478 or at redwards@southjerseymedia.com